Utah judge to decide if convicted killer with dementia can be executed

SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for a Utah man who has been on death row for 37 years are due before a state judge Wednesday as they seek to spare the convicted murderer from execution because he has dementia.

SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for a Utah man who has been on death row for 37 years are due before a state judge Wednesday as they seek to spare the convicted murderer from execution because he has dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies was sentenced to die in 1988 for the killing of Maurine Hunsaker, a mother of three. His attorneys say the 67-year-old inmate’s dementia is so severe that he cannot understand why he’s facing execution.

If he is deemed competent, Menzies could be one of the next U.S. prisoners executed by firing squad after the method was used on two South Carolina men in recent weeks: a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001 and a man who killed an off duty police officer in 2004.

Medical experts brought in by prosecutors say Menzies still has the mental capacity to understand his situation, while those brought in by the defense say he does not. The hearing Wednesday will be the last in Menzies’ competency case before Judge Matthew Bates issues an opinion, said Eric Zuckerman, a lawyer for Menzies.

Menzies is not the first person to receive a dementia diagnosis while awaiting execution.